Leaving on a jet train.

June 20, 2009

The train ride was a long one.  My first train departed from the station in Siena at one.  I was worried because I had three changes to make and if even one of them were to be late then it would make me miss all the other ones.  When the ticket checker came by to check my ticket I asked him if we were going to get to Empoli on time.  He sort of laughed and said, “Of course!  If it isn’t then I’ll by the coffee.”  

I sort of got the feeling that he felt I was being silly for worrying about staying on schedule.  Well, we did get to Empoli on time.  Then my train from Empoli to Pisa was on time as well.  My bags were a bit heavy so I had a bit of a hard time getting in and out of the train.  

I almost killed a girl with my backpack while I was trying to put it in the overhang.  It accidently slipped but I was able to save the girl from my backpack breaking my favorite headband in the process.  Oh well.  Then my train from Pisa to La Spezia was really pretty because we started nearing the seaside.  My last change was from La Spezia to Milano.  The first part was all along the coast that is also know as the Italian Riviera or Cinque Terre.  I tried to sneak in a few pictures between stations.  About half way through the train ride a train worker came through the whole train announcing that there was something wrong with the train so we were going to have to switch trains at Genova.  Everyone of course was put out.  When we got to Genova we switched trains but then the train didn’t leave for another half hour because they had to change the motor or something like that.  Everyone was so upset, especially the people that were going to miss their connecting trains to other places.  There was one Italian man that was especially upset.  He was yelling all sorts of profanities.  I slowly moved away from him because I was kinda scared.  But he kept yelling, “bastardi, bastardi, bastardi!”, “porca madonna, porca madonna” and other bad words like crap and blames against deity.  He sounded funny: he didn’t pronounce any of his ‘r’s .  He was also carrying a bag with something in it.  It was probably meat but I imagined that they were parts from a dead body he had cut up.  It just kept getting better and better because he started yelling at another train worker and said that he was going to call the police.  And he did but I think they hung up on them.  I half expected him to snap and wave around a gun or something.   Then an African man tried to tell him about the fast train that was leaving from another platform but the Italian just pretended to not listen and be annoyed.  While we were waiting at the station in Genova we kept hearing the announcer over the loudspeaker announce late trains over and over. 

It was pretty boring on the bus.  I couldn’t do much because I get car sick so I sort of just had daydreaming and space staring time.  Our train finally got in to Milano at around 10 pm.  I went to where Jackeline was supposed to meet me but she wasn’t there.  I thought maybe she had left because my train had been twenty minutes late so I went to go try to call but right as I was picking up the phone she came and found me.  She brought her sister Candy and Candy’s husband Carlo.  I was glad to have a guy around that late at night.  Jacky and I stayed up for a while chatting and catching up.  Jacky’s family are a lot more party people than I’m used to so I guess I won’t be sleeping as early as I have been.